Rough Justice-2

Friday, November 15, 2013

This will assist you in keeping the clubface open throughout the swing and - more to the point - returning it in that open position so that it slides beneath the ball through impact.

There's a certain flowing quality that is vital to this swing, and this is something you must work to engender through what I would term a 'fluid' wrist action. The hands and forearms must be 'soft' so the club is encouraged to release quite early on the way down and on up into the follow through.

Another tip will further help you here: as you release the club through the grass, you actually want to feel as though your hands and the handle of the club are slowing down,while the clubhead itself is accelerating.

The net effect of this will be that you have a real sense of the right hand releasing underneath the left, which I hope you get a good impression of from the sequence towards the camera.

Look at the way the palm of the right hand pretty much mirrors the clubface as it is released - that is what guarantees the maximum loft is in play as you swing through the grass.

Another point to note is that the wrists hinge up freely into the follow-through,while the ball pops up softly and will land and stop fairly quickly, even though you are playing from the rough. Work on length of your swing to control distance.

Soft pop-up from a jungle lie - it is possible!

A typical reaction to finding your ball in this type of hay is to think you have no option but to take a hack and hope for the best. But a tour player will take an entirely different view.

Because there is an advanced technique that enables you to slide the clubface beneath the ball and have it come up soft. The key,with a sand iron or utility wedge is in the way you initially set up to the shot, the the open clubface preset in the delivery position.

The way the shaft is angled away from the target line is important; when you return the club into this position on the downswing, effectively with the heel leading, you are able to cut through the grass more easily on the way to impact.

Set in the open position, the heel of the club 'scythes through the long grass before the final release of the right hand in that split-second before impact squares up the leading edge, enabling you to pull the clubface under the ball.

So, to recap:

(1)At the set up, you want a fairly open stance, your weight favouring your left side.

(2) Preset that open face, turning your wrists and the clubshaft to the right until the shaft is almost parallel with the line across your toes.This is your starting position (I would always recommend gripping down on the club for any sort of trouble shot, as that immediately gives you a better feel for the clubhead).

(3)Your weight remains on the left side as you then complete your backswing, with a full hingeing of the wrists.

(4) Return to that preset position on the way back down, cutting through the grass before releasing the right hand to add a final burst of acceleration as you pull the clubface beneath the ball.

(5) Look at the position of the right hand and the clubface at the finish.The palm of the right hand and the clubface point up towards the sky,which confirms you have maintained an open face through the impact area.

Delivering the verdict: These sequence show that- in the final frames into impact - the open clubface is squared up by the right hand as it swings down, across and beneath the ball. Having pre-set the clubface in a fairly open position at address, this releasing of the right hand is the key, as it is that action which accelerates the open face all the way through the hitting area

Hybrid to the Rescue!

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Rough Justice

Tour players spend most of their time off the course working on developing their short-game skills - and not always from a perfect lie on the fairway.

Miss a green and you never quite know what sort of lie to expect, and so the smart players test themselves from all sorts of situations, and figure out the specific technique they need to get a ball up and down from pretty much anywhere.

So let me share with you some tour secrets that can help you to extend the versatility of your short-game with a look at how to take the ball cleanly from fluffy grass, how to get the clubhead beneath the ball for height and control from longer stuff and even how to play a controlled high shot from the jungle.

Oh, and a useful shot with the ever-trusty hybrid.

As ever, imagination is the mother of invention...

Wide, U-shaped stroke 'collects' the ball

Let's look first at a common scenario: you have missed the green by a matter of a few feet and find your ball sitting atop fluffy grass. It's a perfect lie for smashing a driver,or a fairway wood, but how do you go about playing a delicate chip shot that gets you the clean contact you need to control the flight and landing speed of the ball on the green?

From this type of lie,when the ball is sitting 'up', there's always that danger of catching it off the top of the clubface,which deadens impact. So you need a technique that guarantees a clean and precise strike. This is what you do:go down the shaft of whatever club you need to give you the desired loft-and-roll combination,and then,as you create your set-up, sit the club up on its toe a little.

Stand almost as you would to putt - here I'm even using my regular putting grip. With your feet together, alignment slightly open to the flag, you want to feel that your arms hang comfortably close to your body,while your weight just eases towards the front foot. Play the ball from middle to back in your stance (experiment), so that your hands are slightly ahead,with the shaft leaning gently to the target.

From here, it's a relatively simple case of working the upper body, arms, hands and club as one unit. There's little wrist action to speak of, and a natural U-shaped swing collects the ball.

How to play a 'pop-up' when the ball is sitting down

So, you find your ball just a few yards off the edge of the green, but sitting down a little in fluffy rough.The pin is just a few paces onto the green, and so you need to get the ball up pretty quickly and have it land and stop softly within a relatively short area - not easy out of this sort of rough.

Well, here's the solution. Take your sand iron or lob wedge, and as you set up with the ball more or less in the centre of your stance, 'soften' your left hand and wrist so you create this distinct 'cup' shape.

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Scythe of Relief

Whenever I get the chance to play a practice

round with someone like Nick Faldo, I snap it

up.

Faldo is a player I have admired as much

for his short game as for his ideas on the

swing. Nick has a terrific imagination around the greens and is always experimenting with different types of shot - such as this one

he showed me at Augusta last year.

From fluffy rough he described playing the shot with a 'scything' action - and I think you'll like it.

Maximise width, minimise hand action...

Next time you find yourself in fluffy rough just off the green, do as Nick Faldo suggests and set up to play the shot with a scything motion. It's a bit like a bunker shot, only here you are using the grass as the buffer. Out of this sort of lie, the key is to stay aggressive through the shot.

You don't want to be decelerating through it, otherwise the clubhead will get caught up and you get the goofy one that doesn't quite get out. So get yourself set up like you would for a greenside sand shot. Open the clubface until it is almost lying flat about an inch or so behind the ball, and compensate

with a fairly open body alignment. A good tip here is to stand a little further from the ball than you would for a normal pitch, as that gets your hands nice and low at the set-up, which helps you to create the scything action through the ball. The key then is to make a wide, smooth swing (following the line of your toes) and to keep your hands quiet throughout.

Only with practice will you get a feel for the thickness of the grass and the way the ball reacts from it. All I think about is trusting my swing and swinging the club into the grass a good inch behind the ball. Even if I have a lot of green, I try to fly it most of the way.

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Sharper Short Game

The principles that govern your pitching action are exactly the same as those you use in the full swing. From 100 yards and in, it's your versatility that counts.

On creating a compact, repeating action

When you watch good players hitting wedge shots, you might be surprised at just how aggressive they are through the ball. For a shot of anything from 50 to 90 yards or so, they use speed to create the perfect ball-turf strike that imparts backspin. This is how they control the flight of the ball and its subsequent reaction on the green.

The secret to this close-game control is a swing that sees the hands, arms and body work in harmony from the set-up all the way to the finish. As such, all the work that you put into the short game actually improves your full swing - because this is the very 'core' of your motion.

I take great care to make sure that the hands and arms work with the body as I make these mini-swings. The wrists hinge naturally and the club swings up freely to create the backswing.

Find your range

Distance control in the short game is the key to consistently good scoring, and the best advice is this: once you have a reasonably good technique, go out and establish your 'best' distances with each of your pitching clubs. The key is to go out and practise your most reliable swing. For me that's the three-quarter action you see here. I will pitch 20 balls with this swing and then measure the landing distance to give me a precise yardage I know can trust. I then repeat the exercise with all of my wedges to give me a span of scoring shots.

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Short Game Primer

One of the principles that we work on is that the left wrist is always in control of what the clubface is doing. This is a feeling you should cultivate in all areas of the game, but particularly in the short game, where there are so many different shots to master.

Golf is a two-handed game, obviously, but the danger (speaking for a right-handed player) is that the right hand will want to dominate the shot. That's why it is always a good idea to train with the left hand only, as it develops the overall feelings you need to be looking for.

Keep this in mind as you work on the following short-game lessons, starting here in the sand.

Sand Play

The trick to good bunker play is to use the so-called 'bounce' of the club. To do this, you not only open the clubface a little at the set-up but you have to then make sure you keep it open throughout the swing.

That's all down to the way the wrists hinge in the swing, the key being to prime your wrist action with a rehearsal swing that sees the left wrist 'cup' and the clubface work open as it swings op. It's as easy as telling the time: when the left wrist hinges and 'cups' correctly you should be able to clearly read the time on your watch.

Prime your wrist action, then trust it

To use the bounce of the sand-wedge properly, you want the clubface open at the set-up and to remain open throughout your swing. What you don't want is to close the face down with a first move that looks anything like this (below). The left wrist is working under the right the clubface twisted down, looking at the sand. 'Cupping' your left wrist will correct this, and the open clubface will easily bounce through the sand.

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Short and Sweet

Revolving around the way you set up to the ball, the basic chipping and pitching action is simplicity itself.

Let's keep things simple

Most golfers over-complicate the short game when in reality the basic chipping and pitching skills are quite straightforward.

Over this and the following spread, I want to leave you with a couple of pro pointers that will enable you to go out and work effectively on improving your chipping and pitching skills - vital for lowering your scores.

In both cases, I believe that understanding ball position is one of the keys to the correct technique.

Moving the ball back a little, towards the right heel, leads you to a good strike, which determines your ability to control both flight and distance.

A swing in miniature

That's what good pitching technique is: the core movement involves the hands, arms and upper body working together to create a compact action that enables you to control the distance you land the ball. What you are looking for is the essence of a full swing scaled down in terms of body turn and speed.

Pitching is all about your ability to control the speed of the delivery through impact. That's why the towel drill is so effective; it helps to establish the vital connection between the arms and upper body that enables you to control the speed at which you swing the clubhead.

 

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Taking Sand After Impact

Why taking sand after the ball is as important as what you take before it.

Delivering a shallow swing arc through the impact area is the key to successful and consistent greenside sand play. Here's a thought that will help you to do just that.

In practice, score a couple of lines in the sand, some six to eight inches apart, and place the ball midway between them. The key is to focus on taking a shallow divot of sand that extends all the way from the first line (your point of entry) all the way to the second line, beyond the ball. That's your exit strategy. If you focus on stretching the divot of sand all the way to that second line, you'll soon develop a shallow swing that rewards you with a controlled escape every time.

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